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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26844346">What to do when a sick boy won't take care of himself and other useful tricks</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unfried_Mouth_Wheat/pseuds/Unfried_Mouth_Wheat'>Unfried_Mouth_Wheat</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>I am the child of an English teacher but that doesn't mean I know crap, I came up with the idea when I was sick, I know it makes his character arc less impactful, IT'S JETKO CUZ I CAN'T WRITE ANYTHING ELSE OKAY??????, Jet (Avatar) Lives, M/M, OC's are gonna be in here, So don't expect it to be comprehensive, The Jet gets a Polar Bear Dog fic that exactly 1 person wanted, This also doubles as a "Zuko joined the GAang at the Crossroads" fic!!!, all it means is I use big words and sound pretentious, but it's for plot, expect no English done right, it's gonna be a 50/50 split, like only one, oh normal tags, oh!, slowburn, the burn part is gonna happen somewhere in the future, the first half is gonna be Jet's relationship with Hama, the second half Jet's relationship with Zuko and the others</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 13:20:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,041</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26844346</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unfried_Mouth_Wheat/pseuds/Unfried_Mouth_Wheat</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>What do you do when a mysterious boy who can't remember anything from his past aside from the name "Li" wont take care of himself? Well, you get him a dog of course!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aang &amp; Jet (Avatar), Jet &amp; Hama (Avatar), Jet &amp; Katara (Avatar), Jet &amp; Sokka (Avatar), Jet &amp; Zuko (Avatar), Jet/Zuko (Avatar), Toph Beifong &amp; Jet</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>47</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Trick 1: How to get a mysterious boy to eat your home cooked meal + The Reason You Should Get a Polar Bear Dog</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/therunawaytoph/gifts">therunawaytoph</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hama was never one to like children. They were loud and attention seeking. Even in her own village she felt this way. Her feelings were only stronger whenever she had to deal with the brats of the Fire Nation. She was far better suited to dealing with adults. The Spirits didn't want her to deal with an adult this time, it seemed. She felt conflicted as she gazed down at the soaked body in front of her.</p><p>Dead things were quite common. It was a part of life, inescapable really. That didn't mean she had to enjoy cleaning up the aftermath however. Dead bodies on her shore never was good for business. She carefully turned it over. She was greeted by the face of a child. A rather busted and puffy face of a child. It had a black eye as well as what she could only assume to be a broken nose. It's entire face was swollen. That was a problem. She couldn't tell if it's features were Fire Nation or not. She chuckled to herself at the thought. No one in their right mind would come here if they had any other options. The body was in armour, but it seemed to be stolen, hobbled together out of necessity. A rotten little thief. She huffed.</p><p> "World's much better off without you then." She jeered. The body had no reaction, as a body should. She went back to her Inn to grab what she needed, specifically a sheet. She needed a good way to transport it after all. However, when she came back, the body was missing.</p><p>She quickly looked around, and sighed in relief when she saw it curled up in the fetal position against a tree. Not a body then. A person. That complicated things a lot more than she would have preferred. It was shaking, no wait, trembling? Ah, shivering. That was the word. She was honestly impressed. It was in horrible shape, the fact that it managed to crawl it's way over was nothing short of a miracle.</p><p>Upon closer inspection, the it was actually a he. She didn't like this distinction. The boy was beginning to be more and more human to her. That was dangerous here. She watched with rapt attention as the boy shakily got on to his legs, leaning against the tree and muttering something under his breath. He fell, unable to support his own weight. She watched as he tried to get up again. A persistent brat, this one was. This time, before he could fall, she held out the sheet in front of him and caught him.</p><p>His eyes were unfocused as he looked up at her. He immediately stiffened. Defensive. This one clearly was a solider. She didn't want to keep a solider in her care, knowing that he may have taken countless innocent lives. He tried to stumble away from her, but he only managed to flail his limbs pathetically, tangling himself up in the loose parts of the sheet. Then he started coughing, or more accurately, hacking up a lung. She sighed, letting got of the sheet and leaving the child to fall, before testing out a theory of hers. Sure enough, he had water in his lungs. How he had managed to power through it, she didn't care to know. She took a deep breath and channeled the water out. The boy's eyes widened as a fairly sizable bubble of water came from his mouth. He thrashed about, seemingly more panicked than before. Once it was all out, she let it splash on the ground. The boy was wheezing.</p><p> "What are you doing here?"</p><p> " ... "</p><p> "Where are you from?"</p><p> "..."</p><p> "What's your name?"</p><p> "..."</p><p> "Do you know anything at all?"</p><p>Again, she was met with silence. A rather frustrating answer for any situation. She calmed her breathing as much as she could before grabbing the sheet and trying to yank it away from the boy. The boy didn't let go. He did mutter out a single word however.</p><p> "Li." Ah, yes, because that cleared up everything. In frustration, she attempted to yank the sheet out from the boys grip again. He made a distressed noise, his fingers digging into the fabric and refusing to let go. He got dragged along with it. So, she wasn't going to get her sheet back alone. She groaned. This was why she didn't like children. They were always so stubborn. She took a deep, deep, breath and started dragging the sheet, and boy, back to her Inn.</p><p> </p><p>•••</p><p> </p><p>Another reason she didn't like children. They were messy, and wherever they went, the mess followed. This, evidently, was made clear by the boy leaving a trail of mud. She tore the (newly ruined) sheet out of his hands and brought him to the wash house, just behind her Inn. Nobody else dare come close to her Inn, so the building effectively became a part of her property. A small lake nearby was where she got her water from. She already had buckets of it by the tub. Better to save herself some of the trouble. She hated to waste it on this boy.</p><p>Either the boy could only say one word, or he would only say one word. A very important distinction. Regardless, he kept muttering it under his breath. She didn't take to kindly towards that.</p><p> "Strip." She ordered. The boy stopped and look at her in confusion and unmistakable fear. She groaned and gestured to the tub. It took a long time, but she did see the shift in his blurry eyes that went hand in hand with understanding. Honestly, what did these people think she was like? She didn't know if she quite wanted to leave the boy alone for any amount of time, but she figured that if he could barely stand he wouldn't be able to run away. She complained as she went to grab towels and clothes that would for anyone but her.</p><p> </p><p>•••</p><p> </p><p>He was still there when she came back, thank goodness. He was shivering in the empty tub, his wet clothes thrown haphazardly around the room. She sighed, kicking aside his arm guards and going over. She set down the textiles and quickly bent the clean water into the tub. For the sake of not killing this kid, she made it warm. Not that he deserved it. First, before any actual cleaning could be done, she needed to do the healing. She rolled up her sleeves before sticking her hands into the water. The boy immediately moved away from her, his jerky movements making water spill out of the tub. </p><p> "Hold still!" She hissed, as the water near her hands started glowing . The boy looked at it and seemed to calm down. There was a muddied look of familiarity on his swollen face. Had this boy been in contact with another Water Bender? If he had, she wanted answers. For now she let it go, however. She placed her hand onto the biggest source of bruising on this kids body, his chest. Her eyes widened as she felt what could only have been multiple broken ribs. The fact that this kid was even awake, let alone semi lucid and moving was extraordinary. He really was stubborn then. Stubborn enough to cheat death.</p><p>She calmed herself before continuing. He made pained noises, face contorting into a grimace, but he sat mostly still. Very few people who hadn't gone through the process before could stay still. Her questions started to multiply within her mind. It would take multiple healing sessions to get this wound back to a condition where it wouldn't cause pain, and even then it would most likely be a severe impairment. She moved her hands to work on the head. He looked apprehensive. She shifted her position so that she was behind him. The head was a very important assest after all. She needed his memories to be intact if she wanted accurate answers to her multitude of questions. She wasn't expecting shortly in for the boy to jerk forward, holding his head in his hands.</p><p> "Why you little-" She was interrupted by a sob. It was a little difficult to tell but he was sweating as he curled up in himself, shivering. No, trembling. She felt a sense of horror as she realized that she felt bad for the boy. That was far too dangerous to do, even more so then normally as she still didn't know anything about this child. She let the water fall from her hands. "We don't have to do that today." She said as the boy continued to hiccup.</p><p> </p><p>•••</p><p> </p><p>All energy was valuable. Energy was life. Without it, nothing would be here. Following that logic, food was energy too. Despite this, the boy refused to eat his food. Whether out of spite or just not being able to, he just stared at the plate. She knew he wouldn't be able to run off, as his legs were far too slack even when she had him flex them. He was too exhausted to be much of a threat. The boy was already thin, not having eaten anything in a while she'd assume.</p><p> "I'm going out." She said. The boy had no response . She sighed, grabbing a basket and her shawl before leaving the Inn and making her way into the village. She never liked this village. In fact, she despised it. Still, she depended on it for all of her goods. She went through all the stalls and got the ingredients she needed. She made sure to get double of everything, as she wasn't used to feeding two mouths but it was obvious that the boy was going to be staying with her for a while.</p><p> "Behold! The powerful, the mighty, the ruthless Polar Bear Dog! This is no sham folks, I assure you! This right here is a genuine Polar Bear Dog, straight out of the South Pole!" Someone yelled. Now that caught her interest. There was a small crowd around the seller, as not too many new people came here. Let alone people with a 'genuine Polar Bear Dog'. She was surprised to see that there actually was a Polar Bear Dog in the little cage that the man had in his cart. Well, almost.</p><p>The poor thing was just a pup. From the looks of it, it had just gotten off of being breast fed. It also looked very starved and hurt. She could already tell it has a lame hind leg. Not very mighty if you asked her. Still, the seller blabbed on.</p><p> "That's right folks, this ferocious beast came from the Heart of the South Pole. We had to tear it out of the hands of those savages for your enjoyment! This terrifying creature can be yours for the low, low, price of three hundred gold pieces!" That's where he lost everybody. She chuckled as he desperately tried to regain their investment.</p><p> "Two hundred gold prices? One hundred? Look, I'm not going any lower that sixty here people. Take it or leave it." They seemed to want to leave it. She looked at the poor creature, trapped in it's tiny cage. Nobody who it would eventually be sold to would know how to care for it. She made up her mind, pulling out her small pouch of coins.</p><p> "I can do ten." She said, holding up her handful of coins. The man seemed disappointed, but was smart enough to read the situation. It was her, or move on to the next village. Which just so happened to be on another island. He quickly swiped the coins from her hand.</p><p> "Sold to this lovely young lady!" He practically screamed. She snickered. Flattery didn't do anything on her. She was handed the caged pup (which she knew should have been heavier than it was) and was bid adieu. She smiled, and  a bit wickedly if she had to guess.</p><p> </p><p>•••</p><p> </p><p>One act of justice later, and the world was rid of a swindler. Plus she got her money back, how wonderful. She went back to the stalls and bought another sitting of meat. She knew the pup would need it dearly. She made her way back to the Inn. She wasn't at all surprised when she saw that the boy was still sitting there, food untouched. He wasn't paying too much attention to anything until she set down the cage with a thump. She bent down and opened the latch, but the pup didn't come out of the cage. She went to go out the groceries she had bought away.</p><p>After a long while, she heard movement. She turned around and saw that the boy had moved himself and his plate to the ground, right in front of the cage. She didn't make much of it. It was a Polar Bear Dog. Any child would be excited about that. She was more focused on putting away her ingredients in the right spot. Then, she heard something else.</p><p> "Eee. Aah. Tuh. Eat. See? Like this." A voice said. She turned around to see the boy demonstrating how to put food in one's mouth. "Ah, but for you it would go more like this." He bent over on to his elbows and practically shoved his face into the plate. When he lifted his head again, he had a full mouth. "Shee? Ish good!" He pushed the plate over to the dog, who had come out of it's cage just enough for her to see it's snout. "Come on, try it!" The boy encouraged, swallowing his food. The dog weakly took a sliver of meat into it's mouth. The boy lit up as it chewed. "Just like that! Good job!"  He cheered.</p><p> She sat back in awe.  The kid just seemed to light up whenever the dog responded. She knew that the only reason it was eating was because he had shown it that the meal wasn't poisoned or rotten, but he didn't. And that's what mattered. She almost felt proud.</p><p>That was another reason she didn't like children. They made it so easy to get attached to. </p><p>Maybe she would allow herself to get attached. </p><p>Just this once.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. The Joys of Apologizing + How to Make a Mediocre Fruit Pie</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"What's this?" She asked, holding up a single piece of wheat. Not wheatgrass, which grew feely out in the forest and around her Inn, but wheat. Grown, cultivated wheat.  The boy didn't even spare her a glance, instead opting for paying attention to the (now much bigger) Polar Bear Dog. She glared at the creature for having been the perfect distraction. She knew that she was the one who "bought" it, but she still felt some sort of resistance to the beast. Not the boy, though. The boy had taken immediately to taking care of it. And he was doing a spirits damned good job too. </p><p>"Look at me." She growled. The boy did so, lazily. She forgot just how frustrating a stubborn child could be. She held the wheat out in front of his face. "Where did you get this?" That certainly got more of a response out of the boy. He almost looked ashamed. Almost. She knew an actor when she saw one. After about three days of having the boy in her care, she knew the only one he'd use his voice for was the dog. She once again glared at the fluffy creature. "Answer me." </p><p>He reluctantly got to his feet, with the help of the Polar Bear Dog. No matter how much she insisted of healing sessions, he'd only allow one per day. He never let her hands get near his head again after the first time. He made it over to the window and pointed.  She her eyes followed to where he was pointing and-</p><p>"Tui and La!" She yelled, genuinely startling the boy. Of all the people to steal from, he just had to steal from Jingyi. The one woman in the entire village who counts her wheat. Counts it. Just her luck. She dragged her hand down her face as she planned her next course of action. "Go get dressed, we're going to apologize." She groaned. This gained her the boy's full attention. He was making a face that clearly displayed disgust and confusion, and this time he wasn't acting. "You did this to yourself, brat." She hissed. </p><p>Normally she wouldn't have cared enough to say sorry to an Ash Maker, but she knew better. Jingyi would go around interrogating everyone in the village until she found the culprit. It's what she did when one of her Plum Peaches were stolen last year. The only person that the villagers feared almost as much as her was Jingyi. She didn't want the woman to be breathing down her neck for a week, so it would be better to get it over with now. "Spirits have mercy on me." She muttered, gabbing her shawl and tying it around her shoulders.</p><p>•••</p><p>The walk to Jingyi's house went a lot slower than expected, but that could be blamed on the boy who was desperately clinging on to the Polar Bear Dog as he panted. It wasn't even that long of a walk. She supposed it was reasonable to believe that the boy who had been found half drowned and starved was having problems walking long distances. She sighed and continued. If the boy died because of this walk she would flood Jingyi's entire crop.</p><p>•••</p><p>The door opened and Jingyi's face entered her vision. The boy was behind her, seemingly too exhausted to move any more.</p><p>Jingyi had been in the village for as long as she had and longer. Her first encounter with the woman had been about 50 years ago, and she had never changed personality wise. Now of days her face was sunken in and her hair was steadily going grey to the point of two thick strands in the front being fully the silver color. Said hair was pulled up into a messy bun with no care or thought put into it. Her eyes had never aged though. They still were black voids of nothingness.</p><p>"Well hello there, Hama. I suspect you heard about what has happened? How I was robbed" Jingyi said, placing the back of her hand to her forehead.  She was always over dramatic whenever it came to her crops. It was actually quite reasonable considering that selling her crops was how she made a living, but Hama elected to ignore this rational train of thought. She gave a glare to the boy who was still panting behind her before responding.</p><p>"Yes. In fact, I have reason to believe that I know who did it." She said, urging the boy to step forward. He did, silently. The dog, however, whined. She motioned to the boy then pulled out the piece of wheat. "It seems my little guest is a lot more nimble than he seems."  The boy made a face at her, but she didn't care. She was mad at him, and she would let him know it.</p><p>Jingyi motioned for them to follow her inside, demeanor shifting in a way that Hama couldn't quite put her finger on. When the boy was inside, he promptly say down and started petting the Polar Bear Dog.</p><p> "You did such a good job, I know it was hard for you." He cooed, scratching it behind the ears. "Such a good job." She found this quote comical as the Polar Bear Dog hadn't been the one struggling. She sighed. She cursed the spirits for making children so easy to fall in love with.</p><p> "I assume you'll want to be compensated for your troubles?" She asked, turning to look at Jingyi who was also captivated by the boy's reassuring words to the Polar Bear Dog.</p><p> "What is that thing?" She gestured. Hama had to stop herself from hissing out the words. No one from this nation deserved to know anything about her culture. </p><p> "The seller said it was a Polar Bear Dog." She answered as calmly as she could , which was surprisingly a lot. "I believe it's a juvenile one, too." Jingyi seemed to nod at this. She had never seen Jingyi so...quiet. She couldn't tell if she liked it or not. </p><p> "I've heard about them, or well, their existence. I never thought I'd actually see one." She said. It was obvious when her attention shifted from the dog to the boy. He was currently bent over the creature, head resting on it's chest as if to make sure it was still breathing. "I didn't know you had a kid." She mused, a smug look clear on her face. Ah, the old Jingyi was back.</p><p> "I don't." She grumbled, looking at the boy aswell. "I'm just taking care of him until he's healed up." That was her excuse, anyways. Jingyi nodded before going off into the kitchen. Along side selling her crop, she also sold pastries. Jingyi was always a busybody who could never take a break. Hama was willing to bet that she cleaned instead of slept. She came back with a basket with a piece of cloth over top of it.</p><p> "Give these to him when you both go back." She ordered. Hama didn't like taking orders from anyone, not even her own father. She was always defiant like that.</p><p> "Of course," she lied. "but about the compensation-" She was interrupted by Jingyi's obnoxious laugh.</p><p> "It's just a single piece of wheat, my dear! Who would get upset over that?" Hama scowled at the old woman. "Now, I got an order from the colonies, and a rather big one at that. Doo you think you and not your kid could help me?" The nerve of this woman!</p><p> "Actually, we just came over to apologize." She said. Jingyi tisked.</p><p> "Then consider this as the apology." She turned to look at the boy. "Young man, do you want to help me?" She asked. The boy made a face at her. "Oh, come now. You'll get to have the flukes." There was that twinkle in his eyes again, the only indicator that he even vaguely remembered something. That seemed to do the trick as he was up on his feet and stumbling towards them.</p><p>She sighed. "I guess." Jingyi flashed a cocky smile that made her want to punch her.</p><p> "Excellent! Now, dear, if you could go fetch some flour for me?"</p><p> </p><p>•••</p><p> </p><p>It was well past dark when they left Jingyi's house. Looking down at the two baskets in her hands, she had a feeling that Jingyi had messed so.e of the fruit pies up on purpose. She really hoped that the boy liked fruit pies, because she wasn't too fond of them. They just seemed too dense. </p><p>She looked back at the boy who was carrying a basket aswell. It was the basket Jingyi had originally given to them. That woman was always going overboard. The walk back to the Inn was much easier than the walk up. She would forever curse hills for being so difficult.</p><p> </p><p>•••</p><p> </p><p>The Inn was cold. They had been gone since the morning, and the Inn wasn't used to that. She started a fire pretty quickly, years of using the spark rocks had made her very good at it. The boy and the dog laid down by it.</p><p> "You can't fall asleep now, you still have to eat." The boy nodded sleepily. She sighed and opened the basket that was in his grasp. More pastries. At least they weren't fruit pies.</p><p>She sighed as she went into the kitchen and found something to make. It was going to be soup tonight. It was quick to make and quick to eat, which was desperately needed as the boy was already nodding off.</p><p> </p><p>•••</p><p> </p><p>She led the Polar Bear Dog to the boy's designated room, and the boy followed. The moment his body hit the mattress, he was out. The Polar Bear Dog jumped up on top of him and laid down too. She had tried to stop it at first, but now she just let the creature be. She sighed as she went to her own room.

That night, when she rested her head on the pillow, she almost felt content. Almost.</p>
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